7 years ago Andrea, Dec and Izzy lost a husband and father. Andrea brought up the two children wonderfully on her own for such a long time and even though Mark Ryder is no longer here, he is always remembered and always will be.

I am now one of the family and loving every moment of being with them. I thought it would be a nice idea to run the Dronfield 10k race and raise some money for CRY; and Dec decided to join me by entering the 2k Fun Run. This charity is obviously very important to Andrea and the kids and now also to me.

Both Declan and I completed the races in good times – Dec did his 2K in 9 minutes and 37 seconds and I completed the 10K in a personal best for me of 52 minutes and 56 seconds. It was a cold day to start with, but we soon warmed up with the running. The sun came out and there was a great atmosphere as there were many runners and a lot of other fundraising going on.

I set up a Virgin Money Giving site for all the donations and I am please to tell you that, so far, we have raised £786.75. With the Gift Aid that total is now £914.69 which I think is an amazing amount considering I set it up just over a week before the event!

You can view the site using the link: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/MarkCunningham1

The kids are really pleased that we have been able to raise so much money and we still have some donations to come in, mostly from Dec’s school friends and teachers.

Mark Cunningham